My family had the pleasure of a 3 night stay at the Oitavios in Cascais Portugal. Cascais is a quaint seaside town about 35 minutes north of Lisbon with easy access to/from Lisbon airport. The town and surrounding area of Cascais is an amazing mix of city and beach. It reminded me of Capetown, South Africa. The area is extremely clean, safe and easy to get around. There are many great dinning and shopping venues and the beaches are off the charts, with fantastic little beach side bars and restaurants everywhere. The Oitavios Hotel is a new modern hotel located at the north end of Cascais offering easy access to the beaches with breathtaking views at every turn. The area around the hotel has many jogging, walking and biking paths, many of which run adjacent to the ocean and connect to the hotel within a few hundred meters. In every respect the hotel’s views and scenery are very hard to beat and the hotel and service were fantastic as well.
The hotel is very modern and stark in style. As the property is only 5 years old everything is spotless. All the rooms at the Oitavios are a minimum of about 650 square feet and have huge balconies with views of the ocean or the amazing dunes that surround the ocean. We are a golfing family and would rank the course at Oitavios as beautiful, challenging and well maintained as any course we have played with green fee rates that did not break the bank. Our room (loft) was extremely spacious with a partially open bathroom concept (shower and bathtub – with ocean views) that made everything feel open and spacious. The hotel has a few rooms that have private bathrooms. The king size bed was appointed with great linens with an adjoining seating area with large oversized modern sofa and a desk area with all the appropriate plug ins to run a small business for a day or two. Both the seating area and bedroom had its own TV with a number of English channels. The room also had tons of drawers and closet space to help you settle in and feel at home. There was a huge heated pool (most are not heated in Portugal) with an expansive lounge area overlooking the beautiful country side was an uber relaxing environment complete with a pool side lunch/bar area and if you are too lazy to walk the 30 steps the pool side wait staff will get you fed and watered in style. There was also a very nice co-ed steam/sauna/Jacuzzi/relaxation area that was completely glass enclosed with views of the grounds and dunes.
The hotel and immediate area itself offered tons of sporting and activity options as they seemed endless. Affiliated with the hotel was a world class equestrian center, tennis center, huge gym (not your typical hotel gym), lap pools, squash courts, paddle courts, surf instruction and more. If you are an active family with diverse interests I would guess that everyone would be busy and happy. We ate most of our meals in Cascais although our breakfasts and one lunch were top notch. The concierge desk did a great job of steering us to some great restaurants including a great Indian and sushi restaurant. Service was top notch and I would easily compare it to any 5 star hotel we have visited. The resort is perfect for active families or couples just looking to chill out and enjoy the beauty of the grounds and the region with easy access to historical towns and sites as well.